Gomez on 'Pond Scum' Remark: 'Higher Approval Rating than Congress'

Republican Senate Candidate Gabriel Gomez, who made headlines by calling his opponent in next month’s Massachusetts special Senate election Congressman Ed Markey (D-MA) “pond scum” for running an internet ad that compared Gomez to Osama bin Laden, doubled down by repeating the insult Friday afternoon on Boston’s Howie Carr radio program.

Carr asked Gomez if he was sorry for calling Markey pond scum. Gomez responded emphatically, “Absolutely not. It has a higher approval rating than congress.”

“That ad,” the former Navy Seal told Carr, “was all over the place on the web. My eight-year old son saw it and asked me what I was doing next to Bin Laden?”

Carr ran an online poll all day Friday that showed 91% of listeners who responded agreed that Gomez’s comments about Markey were not harsh enough.

Gomez also hit Markey for drawing Social Security benefits while being paid as a member of Congress. Markey released his tax returns on Friday; they showed he received $11,600 in Social Security benefits in 2012.

“He pays a lower rate than I do,” Gomez said of Markey. “He’s receiving social security benefits as well. I hope to be the person to make sure that’s all he’s collecting after the election… You can totally see why he went ballistic when the President said he might have to do some entitlement reform and tie Social Security benefits to the CPI.”

Gomez added that he thought Markey waited until late Friday before the start of a holiday to release his tax returns because “he probably thought no one will be paying attention to this.”

Carr noted that Markey was “Missing in Action” last week both in Washington, where he missed some votes, and in Massachusetts, where he didn’t show up to campaign.

Gomez disagreed, arguing that to characterize Markey as such implied that he had ever been active at some point. “He wasn’t MIA,” said Gomez, “he was AWOL.”

Gomez added that “what I did is I forced him to release his taxes. I’ve done more in 3 weeks than he’s done in 40 years.”